Viruses/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim is lying in his bed. He is sick, with a thermometer in his mouth. Moby brings him a tray with soup, a sandwich, and an envelope. He takes the thermometer from Tim's mouth and reads his temperature. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Uh, no-- no, thanks. I'm not-- I'm not that hungry. MOBY: Beep. Moby pushes a spoon of soup into Tim's mouth and hands Tim an envelope. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, what is a virus? From, Sabine. A virus is a tiny particle that needs a host cell to live in and multiply. An image shows a single virus. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Right. The human body makes a great home for viruses. Virus particles are extremely small, thousands of times smaller than the cells that make up your body. An animation shows the size of a virus in comparison to the size of a human cell. The virus is much, much smaller. TIM: A virus is made up of a strand of DNA or RNA, surrounded by a protein coating called a capsid. Sometimes the capsid is surrounded by a fatty membrane. An animation shows the strand, capsid, and fatty membrane that Tim describes. MOBY: Beep. TIM: DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. An image shows a strand of DNA. TIM: DNA is sort of like a blueprint for your body. It contains all the plans for how your body functions. An image shows a blueprint of a human body in front of the DNA strand. TIM: Anything that's alive has DNA in every one of its cells. Images show several living things, including humans, insects, plants, animals, fungi, and more. TIM: RNA is a simpler type of genetic material that DNA uses to send instructions to the cell it's in. Images compare DNA and RNA. They look similar, but RNA is simpler. It looks like half of DNA's double helix. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, a virus takes hold by attaching itself to a cell in your body and injecting that cell with its own genetic information. An animation shows a virus acting as Tim describes. TIM: Once inside the cell, the virus's DNA or RNA uses the cell's machinery to make more viruses. The cell creates more viruses. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, it pretty much hijacks the cell. Viruses are tricky little guys. An animation shows a green cloud of virus floating in front of a girl who sniffs. A callout shows that when she sniffs, a virus attaches itself to a cell in her body. TIM: A lot of times, viruses end up damaging or killing the cell they've infected. That's when you get sick. An animation shows viruses attacking the cells in the girl's throat. She becomes pale and coughs. TIM: But not all viruses make you sick. Some replicate and move on, no harm done. An animation shows viruses within a cell, replicating and leaving, as Tim describes. VIRUSES: See ya, see ya, bye. CELL: Later, dudes. The cell waves to the departing viruses. TIM: Most animals, including people, are home to all kinds of harmless viruses. An animation shows a group of animals, including a person, a duck, a fox, a cat, and a turtle. TIM: The ones that make you sick are called pathogenic viruses. The sick girl is shown again. TIM: Some are just annoying, like the viruses that cause the common cold and mild flu. We get sick, our bodies fight them off, and we recover. Tim sneezes. His nose runs. Moby hands Tim a tissue, and Tim wipes his nose with it. TIM: Excuse me. Others are more serious, viruses like hepatitis, ebola, and HIV. Images show the viruses Tim names. Tim sneezes again. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Thanks. Tim smiles. TIM: That's how this cold virus spreads to other people, by the way. Moby looks nervous and takes a step away. TIM: When I sneeze, I'm spraying out thousands of little virus particles into the air. Tim sneezes again. An animation shows the viruses he is spraying. TIM: Excuse me. Viruses can also spread through person-to-person contact, exchange of bodily fluids, insect bites, animal waste. It really depends on the particular virus. Images show two people shaking hands, two people kissing, a mosquito biting a person, and fresh animal feces (also known as poop). TIM: Okay, I'm all done with my soup. Tim hands his empty bowl to Moby. Moby pats Tim on the head, takes the tray out of the room, and shuts out the light, leaving Tim in the dark. TIM: Hey-- Hey, where are you going? Moby shuts the door. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Health Transcripts